Phalanx

Phalanx
Author	/u/Magos_Nashoid
Civilian name	Jasper Newchapel
Alignment	Hero
Affiliation	Protectorate Captain (Devilfish)
PRT Classification	Tinker, Master,
Born	Devilfish, Minnesota
Status	Active

Captain of the Devilfish Protectorate, Phalanx has worked in the organization as a cape for half a decade, Phalanx has proven themselves to be a highly capable robotics tinker, with a Greco-Roman theme (which has suited them well as far as merchandise sales are concerned.)

Phalanx began their career as one the few capes stationed at the Devilfish field office, before a promotion saw them stationed in Minneapolis, after serving there for several years with distinction. They were then transferred back to Devilfish after another promotion, in order to lead the local Protectorate as it transitions from Field office into a full Department.

Character Sheet

Appearance

Phalanx's appearance out of costume

Civilian: Jasper Newchapel is a deceptively thin, but startlingly athletic person, called a twink by their friends, this is not necessarily an inaccurate description.

Jasper is 5 foot 9 inches in height, weighing 150 pounds. With a head of thick black hair, and light brown eyes. Costume: Phalanx wears a distinctive golden suit of armor. This suit is more protective than that worn by PRT Troopers, but with a much better range of motion, as well as a built-in cooling system, that makes them the envy of many of their spandex and armor-clad compatriots.

Phalanx wears a full-face helmet, with highly-emotive blue-LED eyes. Although this helmet has been shown to have the capability to open, allowing unaided sight/breathing/speech. A bright-red helmet ploom sits atop the helmet, which conceals a couple small antennas for the radio’s powerful built-in radio.

While Phalanx has a number of weapons load-outs, the piece of equipment they are best known for is their Roman Parma (round shield), that they tend to carry with them regardless of other load-out choices.

Mundane Equipment and Resources

Wealth Level: 7

Primarily lives at the Protectorate HQ, but has a well furnished/stocked Apartment that is seldom used outside of family visits, or the storage of miscellaneous belongings, that aren’t used enough to bother keeping at HQ.

Has a slightly-higher than average Tinker budget, to account for expensive-but essential components in his Robots CPUs.

• PRT-issue Radio
• PRT-issue Medical Kit
• Zipties
• Set of Handcuffs
• Multi-tool
• Police Truncheon

Skills and Specializations

• Understanding of Government bureaucracy
• Understanding of criminal and conspiratorial behavior aka basic level criminology.
• High speed pursuit vehicle training
• Basic first aid
• Understanding of basic human intelligence gathering.
• Basic Forensic Knowledge
• Understanding of laws and legal procedures
• Navigating his way around quickly with maps, charts and tables, orienteering, instruments, or dead reckoning.
• Searching a room, vehicle, or person for weapons and contraband.
• PRT Self Defense training in unarmed combat
• PRT Self Defense training with PRT weapons
• Skilled Use of Antiquated weaponry, and associated tactics.
• Basic PRT/Police Squad Tactics
• Customized Squad Tactics (Devised by Phalanx for himself and his AI)
• Can play the Piano.
• Is a pretty good Dungeon Master.

Mentality

Jasper is a relatively jovial person, enjoying the company of their Protectorate coworkers, their PRT compatriots, and having a healthy respect for the Junior Heroes in the Wards, even if they feel a bit weird working with children and teenagers. Unlike some parahumans, they have little trouble making civilian friends

Jasper has changed since their trigger, having mellowed out oddly enough, compared to the more serious person they had been when acting as a PRT trooper pre-trigger.

Heroism is not just a job for Phalanx, they are genuinely called to be the best they can be, and while heroism is a major part of their life, they consistently endeavor to not let it consume them, or to let it be the sole focal point in their life.

Power

Trigger type: Single Natural Trigger (Controller Tinker)

• Phalanx is first and foremost a robotics tinker. Phalanx’s robots, or Droids as Phalanx prefers to call them, are one-half Hardware (Positronic Brain) and one-half Software (Learning Algorithm) without the two-halves combined the Droids are non-functional.
• Phalanx can design these Droids to fulfill many specific tasks, but has spent the majority of their tinkering efforts on combat-capable law-enforcement droids, although this is not the limits of their power, simply what has been explored thus far.
• The Hardware component of their Droids, the Positronic Brain, is extremely detailed work requiring maintenance (and somewhat pricey materials) to meet safety standards, thus Phalanx can only keep a small number of them in an optimal working-condition at a time.
• Typically The number of Positronic Brains that can be maintained at one time is six (6), as any more than that risks Phalanx being unable to keep up with Maintenance for their other Inventions, or the unintentional sabotage of Phalanx’s responsibilities in the Protectorate, and as a civilian.
• Phalanx is capable of designing his Droids, with various levels of intelligence, sentience, and sapience, and may choose to include emulated-emotions if they are deemed warranted for function. Typically Phalanx’s Droids are Near-human in intelligence, but this is not always the case.
• Phalanx is capable of synthesizing several Meta-materials that are of use in his Inventions, the most ubiquitous of which is dubbed ‘Elysian-Steel’ used in both the Positronic-Brain, Armor-plating, and the construction of simple weaponry,
• Like many Tinkers, Phalanx can build weaponry and armor, even if it is not their primary specialty. Armour designed by Phalanx is typically similar in construction to a simple Droid-Frame in structure, albeit hollow, and typically of lesser capabilities as a result.
• Weapons designed by Phalanx are rather simple for tinker-tech. With their power allowing greater versatility when designing Melee weapons, as opposed to those of a ranged variety. Typical Melee armaments may include things like, swords forged from meta-materials, bludgeons with a shock-element, or small Hard-light Knives.
• Ranged armaments might include a simple ballistic weapons, magnetic dart launchers, or low-powered Laser pistols (High end of what he can build)
• All of the Droids designed by Phalanx possess a distinctly alien mental-architecture, meaning that while capable of passable social interaction with humans they come off as somewhat socially incompetent, this means they may only be utilized to their fullest potential by Phalanx, who possesses an intimate-familiarity with their thought-processes, and technical-specifications. Only achieving maybe half effectiveness at best when supervised by others.

Backstory

Like many children, Jasper wanted to be a Hero when they were a kid. Things didn’t work out that way though. But a successful career in the PRT was rewarding in its own way. Jasper would even argue that putting your life on the line to help others meant more when you weren’t a bullet-proof Modern-day Demi-god.

This wasn’t just a job for Jasper, it was a life-calling. But on Earth Kaff, all good things must end in tears. During one fateful operation Jasper and his squad was disabled by a potent emotion-manipulator. To this day Jasper is uncertain why it affected him so much more than his squad-mates (not that they didn’t have a rough time too).

The others took sometime to recover from the long-term negative effects, perhaps a month of downtime on average. Power-induced PTSD was no joke after all, but it seemed that the effects wore off with time with minimal lasting effects.

Not so for Jasper though, perhaps Jasper was simply more inclined towards Agoraphobia, but the PTSD had left Jasper a grade-A agoraphobe and Insomniac. They were able to tough through things at first, so they returned to active duty (barely passing psych checks) but their performance quickly dropped. His comradery with his co-workers fizzled out, and their combat effectiveness was hampered. The PRT discharged Jasper, putting them on reserve, so that Psychiatric help could be given.

Months passed, with minimal progress, Jasper isolated themselves from civilian friends, and family, video calls with their Therapist continued, and Jasper found some solace in the form of digital media, but things remained stagnant, and alone. Efforts to improve were continually met with setbacks, this continued for months.

TRIGGER

The PRT Therapist was alarmed when Jasper ceased communications, concerned that Jasper had taken their own life, they called the police, and the paramedics.

Jasper was not dead, but had simply dismantled every electronic device he owned in a fugue-state, having constructed most of a Bipedal Robot. Jasper remained unresponsive to the Police and Paramedics in his home, and the PRT were dispatched when it was clear this was a parahuman matter.

Their Trigger had left them different, they still had agoraphobia, but something had fundamentally changed, that allowed a gradual recovery. Legally they were now a member of the Protectorate, and while it took over a year and a half of concerted self-improvement to recover to the point that they were allowed on active duty. Jasper flourished as a protectorate hero.